Cricket 1913

M ay 31, 1913. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 243 thing else. One side wins and the other loses, or the game ends in a draw. T rue cricket recognises no such thing as a finish obtained by legislation, but only, and quite rightly so, a finish obtained by playing cricket. Even a drawn game is finished. Some drawn games are a hundred times more interesting than some games in which one side has won. There is something irresistibly appealing to us as a nation in the bulldoggy play in the final stages o f a game (note the all-important qualification) which saves a side from d e fe a t.” “ I t is the wholly unsportsmanlike play o f those who fiddle-faddle about on the first day o f a match, on the ‘ I can’t win, therefore I ’ll see you shan’t ’ principle, that makes the public gorge rise.” “ T he amateur point o f view is, further, that no law o f the game needs alteration in order to bring about a revival in the fortunes o f first-class cricket. The players, as a body, are strongly opposed to any alteration in the leg-before-wicket la w ; so strongly, that i f it was altered, most amateurs now playing in first-class cricket would give up the gam e.” “ T o play the ball properly the batsman must put his legs in front o f the wicket. There is no other way. W. G. did i t ; nobody did it more than A. G. S te e l; not a single high-class batsman, from John o ’ Groats to Sydney, does not do it. Not until every first-class bowler signs a petition asking M .C .C . to alter the law should Law 24 be altered.” T h e last four paragraphs are all from the first o f an excellent series o f articles by “ A County Cricketer ” lately appearing in the Standard. O n the best authority— his own— I have it that Ernest Vogler is likely to be back in South A frica by the time the M .C .C . Team lands there. I f , as is rumoured, G. A. Faulkner also returns for the season South A frica will have the services o f the two men who did most to win the rubber o f 1909-10 for her. In those five matches the pair took 65 wickets between them for 1,418 runs; the other ten bowlers utilised had 20 for 758 among them. E x c e p t for Nourse— and Faulkner, i f in South A frica — not one o f the leading batsmen o f that season is likely to be playing for South A frica, I gather. J. W . Zulch might p lay ; but nowadays he gets no practice worth speaking o f, and does not seem as keen as o f yore. H . W . T ay lo r should be the side’s great man ; and among others C . O. C. Pearse, M. J. Commaille, A. H . Cooper, G. P . D'. H artigan, the brothers P . A . M. and R . A. H . Hands, L . G. Tapscott, and M. J. Susskind should be in the running. M o r e interesting cricket than that which this season has so fa r produced no one need ask f o r ; and nothing could be better for the game as a whole than such things as the triple triumph o f Derbyshire, the victory o f Northants over Lancashire, and that o f Sussex over M iddlesex. I f only Leicestershire can thrash Notts and Northamptonshire whack Kent during the next few days, the championship w ill be very open indeed. L e o n a r d O liv e r , the Derbyshire left-hander, has for some time past been known as a good man at a pinch. H e played a very gallant innings o f 76 v. Hampshire at Derby last year, and another o f 83 v. Essex at Leyton. He took his bat through the innings for 75 (total 146) v. Warwickshire at Birmingham. H e and John Chapman, who played so finely together v. Warwickshire last week, nearly pulled the game out o f the fire at Southampton in 19 11, adding 128 for the ninth wicket. H is 56 not out v. Lancashire at O ld Trafford in the same season had a good deal to do with his side’s sensational victory by a couple o f runs. In 1909 I saw him hit up 46 v. Sussex at Hove when everybody else failed. H e first played for Derbyshire in 1908, and his figures are eloquent testimony as to how he has come on since then. In that season he batted 30 times to make 310 runs (average 10.33). l 9°9 twenty-seven completed innings yielded him a total o f 332 (12.29). Even in 1910, when he scored his first century, he only totalled 420 in 27 innings (15.59). B u t in 1911 he made a big stride forward— 867 in 35 innings, 2 not out (average 26.27) ’> and, making allowance fo r the slow wickets, his 1912 figures— 690 runs, average 23.00— were as good as these. Up to the date o f writing his 1913 average is only just under 53. R e le a s e from the cares o f captaincy seems to have effected good results in the case o f the old Uppinghamian, Chapman. H e could not get going at all last year, and h alfw ay through the season stood down. In his true form he is a very fine hitter indeed, and no one who saw his 165 v. Warwickshire at B lackw ell in 1910, or his 198 against the same side at Coventry a year earlier would be likely to think him justified in eliminating himself. A man who can slam like that is always worth playing, even i f he only comes off once in a dozen matches. G e o r g e T h o m p s o n ’ s 36 in 160 minutes is a long way off being a record ; but it is quite slow enough to be going on with. What a valuable man Thompson is, though ! H e needs digging out sometimes, and he can keep an end going through an innings o f 200 or so without losing his length. H e and A lbert R e lf are players o f very much the same type. As batsmen and bowlers it would be very difficult to choose between them, but the Sussex man is the finer field. A n o t h e r subscriber from the first has notified me— Mr. W . C . Hancock, o f Longton, the Staffordshire secre­ tary. Ex-secretary by the time these lines are read, I believe. A good man has been found to succeed him. Mr. Percival Briggs takes over the reins. Good luck to him ! B . F . M o r g a n , whom Somerset let slip, will be quali­ fied for Staffs this season. Deyes and Sedgw ick, the two Yorkshiremen, are in fine form ; one enthusiast tells me they are both better than any bowler Yorkshire has at p resen t! T . A . L . W h it t in g t o n has resigned the captaincy o f the Glamorgan eleven. H e was lately the recipient o f a testimonial in recognition o f his services to the county’s cricket; but I doubt whether many people in South Wales appreciate what he has done at its true worth. There is constant reference by sporting scribes that way to the palmy days o f the brothers Brain. I don’t believe that either J. H . or W . H . Brain— with all due respect to what they accomplished— put in anything like the amount o f